ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to move beyond simple description by raising some analytical questions. Why, for instance, was youth travel on the rise in the eighteenth century? Did it mirror a surge in parental love and new family relations or was it rather the—unexpected—outcome of transport innovations? The chapter identifies the main differences or similarities between youth and mainstream travel behaviour. During the eighteenth century, British travellers discovered Wales, Scotland and the Lake District; a similar trend reshaped French, German, Dutch and Flemish travel behaviour. In the late sixteenth century, travellers were advised to take notes on politics, law, economy, religion and other serious subjects. Netherlandish youths were familiar with a more recurrent and less time-consuming way of travelling. Finally, it seems plausible, that the shift from a humanist to a more personal way of writing and observing was cemented by the youthful scribblings, wherein little jokes, anecdotes and petites histoires closely intertwined.
